Re your sig: I disagree. Technology can facilitate communication among members of a society so that social problems may be identified, discussed, and resolved more efficiently than they would be otherwise.
In the Netherlands today, the age of consent is, I believe, 13...
What if a natural urges such as pedophilia, rape, murder, theft can be thought about without actually doing them to another living being? In a virtual reality environment, or with robots, for example...
Even if you agree with them, so what? Pedophilia is taboo today, in a future that includes vr, will it become mainstream (as have oral sex, anal sex...)?
Defending pedophilia is dangerous, I know, but for many there is a difference between fantasizing about and actually hurting someone. If you make the fantasy more pleasurable than reality even, where is the harm in having pedophiliac fantasies?
What is wrong with pedophilia, really? It's been around forever...you're not likely to stop it (just drive it underground, so you don't really know how bad it is) by censoring all talk about it...to me it's wrong when it forces someone to do something against their will. Lock those people up. But fantasizing about pedophilia, or carrying it out in a vr environment for example, is not wrong. Because it doesn't hurt anyone. imho...
You'll never eliminate terrorism by spying on it, it'll keep coming back. We thought we'd eliminated a major source of worry when the Soviet Union collapsed, but that same anti-American spirit is still there in the terrorist groups.
You have to deal with terrorism at the root. What causes it? Echelon can only deal with the symptoms.
In other words, what's the harm of allowing them to intercept the transmissions that they intercept, if at best they are keeping us safer and at worst they are doing nothing at all?
When drugs become legal, maybe...
Although I don't want to be monitored, I'll gladly give up the right to complete privacy to stop the chance of a single future terrorist attack.
I'd rather attack the problem at its source, so that we deal with it effectively. Instead of spying on its own citizens and restricting freedoms, the government should find out the motivation for terrorism and remove that.
. The students in the lunar base project will be successful if they produce designs that are capable of returning money on the investment, and if someone actually steps up to fund the project.
It's a European project. They generally have less problems funding research with government funds than us short-sighted, greedy, selfish americans.
But I don't think it's right to force me to amuse someone who won't amuse me back
Give them the means to amuse themselves. You would benefit because the poor would have less reason to commit crime, and you would suffer less stress worrying about it.
However, if you care to read any news on it, you can see that the reason to shutdown netcafes is for safety and license inspection, it has nothing to do with squeezing free of speech and human right
So 2 days later, there is news of 93 killed in a Chinese mining disaster. Mining accidents in China have been quite prevalent. Why doesn't the government care as much about the miners?
Slashdot Mirror
Re your sig: I disagree. Technology can facilitate communication among members of a society so that social problems may be identified, discussed, and resolved more efficiently than they would be otherwise.
now, i don't like it, but i accept it, even if it SHOULD be changed
How long before you start supporting it and enforcing it?
Political voting has the principle of "one man, one vote" which doesn't hold for stock.
Sexual obession with children is not heathy or normal
What if it never harms anyone else though? Should it still be illegal?
Talking to a terrorist, however, does make you one.
Give those with pedophiliac tendencies technology to simulate sex with children. If they don't affect other people, they are harmless.
I wonder if a sex bot, or a vr environment, would have helped him "keep himself out of the way?"
In the Netherlands today, the age of consent is, I believe, 13...
What if a natural urges such as pedophilia, rape, murder, theft can be thought about without actually doing them to another living being? In a virtual reality environment, or with robots, for example...
Even if you agree with them, so what? Pedophilia is taboo today, in a future that includes vr, will it become mainstream (as have oral sex, anal sex...)?
Defending pedophilia is dangerous, I know, but for many there is a difference between fantasizing about and actually hurting someone. If you make the fantasy more pleasurable than reality even, where is the harm in having pedophiliac fantasies?
What is wrong with pedophilia, really? It's been around forever...you're not likely to stop it (just drive it underground, so you don't really know how bad it is) by censoring all talk about it...to me it's wrong when it forces someone to do something against their will. Lock those people up. But fantasizing about pedophilia, or carrying it out in a vr environment for example, is not wrong. Because it doesn't hurt anyone. imho...
If you could simulate child rape in a virtual reality environment, would that be wrong?
If you never harmed a real human?
My point is that if they use this database on each patient, it will mean that they see fewer patients per day.
Maybe the patients can save time by using the program themselves, while they're sitting waiting...
could his fight be made easier, so the playing field was more level?
There no longer seems to be any legitimate reason to keep QWERTY
laziness, resistance to change, popularity...okay you're right, no legitimate reason.
You'll never eliminate terrorism by spying on it, it'll keep coming back. We thought we'd eliminated a major source of worry when the Soviet Union collapsed, but that same anti-American spirit is still there in the terrorist groups.
You have to deal with terrorism at the root. What causes it? Echelon can only deal with the symptoms.
Yeah, but what prevents them from watching (and interfering with) the Einsteins and Martin Luther Kings of our day?
What if the administration uses Echelon to spy on the Democrats' election campaigns?
This is probably a troll, but whatever.
In other words, what's the harm of allowing them to intercept the transmissions that they intercept, if at best they are keeping us safer and at worst they are doing nothing at all?
When drugs become legal, maybe...
Although I don't want to be monitored, I'll gladly give up the right to complete privacy to stop the chance of a single future terrorist attack.
I'd rather attack the problem at its source, so that we deal with it effectively. Instead of spying on its own citizens and restricting freedoms, the government should find out the motivation for terrorism and remove that.
Yes, this would be most democratic.
. The students in the lunar base project will be successful if they produce designs that are capable of returning money on the investment, and if someone actually steps up to fund the project.
It's a European project. They generally have less problems funding research with government funds than us short-sighted, greedy, selfish americans.
The only thing the moon has going for it is that it's relatively close
Location, location, location...
But I don't think it's right to force me to amuse someone who won't amuse me back
Give them the means to amuse themselves. You would benefit because the poor would have less reason to commit crime, and you would suffer less stress worrying about it.
However, if you care to read any news on it, you can see that the reason to shutdown netcafes is for safety and license inspection, it has nothing to do with squeezing free of speech and human right
i c/newsid_2056000/2056968.stm
So 2 days later, there is news of 93 killed in a Chinese mining disaster. Mining accidents in China have been quite prevalent. Why doesn't the government care as much about the miners?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacif
There is no way Earth based telescopes could have seen it, even had they known exactly where to look.
So use space-based telescopes.
if one does occure in my lifetime and wipes out a few thousand species, I'm not going to feel guilty that I might have been able to prevent it.
You won't feel guilty, because you'll be dead...